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Topic: Racism (Read 2707 times)

One of the most disgusting memes continuing to survive among humans is Racism. Wikipedia defines racism as -Racism involves the belief in racial differences, which acts as a justification for non-equal treatment (which some regard as "discrimination") of members of that race. The term is commonly used negatively and is usually associated with race-based prejudice, violence, dislike, discrimination, or oppression, the term can also have varying and contested definitions. Racialism is a related term, sometimes intended to avoid these negative meanings.

I believe that the good news (long term) is that in a world where we have far greater contact with each other than we have ever had, the 'races', which developed as a result of migrations and isolation, will begin to merge. The only reason there are 'races' is because groups of human populations became separated from one another, and developed minor adaptations or changes.

I believe that the good news (long term) is that in a world where we have far greater contact with each other than we have ever had, the 'races', which developed as a result of migrations and isolation, will begin to merge. The only reason there are 'races' is because groups of human populations became separated from one another, and developed minor adaptations or changes.

I agree. But do you think merging will lead to more conflicts in future?

I agree. But do you think merging will lead to more conflicts in future?

In the near future, yes. Perhaps the next 1000 years or so. After that it will be a fait accomplis. I'm thinking in terms of this adjusting itself over a very long span of time. It took such a span of time for the races to emerge. It might take just as long for them to merge back.

Short term, racism will continue to be a problem. I think all other concerns about race can be put aside for one simple axiom: People want their offspring to resemble themselves. Sometimes the parents put this aside as well, but then the grand parents chime in. Maybe some people feel as though they'll be erased. I have all sorts of thoughts about that, but I think that's at the bottom of it.

One of the most disgusting memes continuing to survive among humans is Racism. Wikipedia defines racism as -Racism involves the belief in racial differences, which acts as a justification for non-equal treatment (which some regard as "discrimination") of members of that race. The term is commonly used negatively and is usually associated with race-based prejudice, violence, dislike, discrimination, or oppression, the term can also have varying and contested definitions. Racialism is a related term, sometimes intended to avoid these negative meanings.

I consider myself as a human or more,a s an animal, so I hate being stereotyped as belonging to a certain race, religion, nation or region and I find it disgusting when people do so.

I identify myself as Anti-Racist, i.e. someone who is against those people who suffer from a racial superiority complex. I personally consider racism to be more dangerous than religion.

So my question is - How to eradicate Racism from society?

I think you answered your own question in a way.

You readily define yourself as belonging to one group of people, while despising another group of people.This is basically the biological mechanism that drives the plethora of group exclusions humans (and why not animals) do. For example, sheep are known to exclude some lambs from getting milk because of their colour (can't find the citation, it is, I am told, a fairly common phenomenon though).

Now I'm not saying excluding or discriminating one group of people because of their skin colour or slightly variably physical properties is anything but stupid, or indeed comparable to discrimination of people based on their ideas, but it is nevertheless our desire to be with like and be wary of unlike that in my view causes this.

Think of it biologically. The absolute majority of our time on this planet as a species has been living in small communities of mostly related people. Choosing your friends based on people you percieve as "your kin" effectively boosts the fitness of your genes. This is due to the fact that in small groups that are related to each other, you share many genes. It's like the fact that, from the perspective of your genes, sacrifising yourself to save two or more of your siblings means that your genes through your siblings have gained from your sacrifice.

Today, however, society is very different. But we remain the same species.

I'm very much against discrimination of people, be the cause or reason (and I'm using reason loosely) anything at all. But as a biologist I'm a bit pessimistic about us being able to shake racism off anytime soon. It always seems to resurface whenever things start going badly. So maybe the best way to minimize racism is to try to see to it that everyone can feel included, has possibilities in life and that our economical systems don't fail. Oh, and a bit of education never hurt anyone.

I consider myself as a human or more,a s an animal, so I hate being stereotyped as belonging to a certain race, religion, nation or region and I find it disgusting when people do so.

I identify myself as Anti-Racist, i.e. someone who is against those people who suffer from a racial superiority complex. I personally consider racism to be more dangerous than religion.

So my question is - How to eradicate Racism from society?

I doubt that racism can ever be eradicated from society as long as we have various races with commonalities beyond skin color specific to each race that serves to differentiate the races. Virtually all humans that have ever lived suffer from or should I say, participate in a "pro-me-ism" mentality. Promeism causes the individual to not only view the world from their particular individual perspective, but also to view that perspective as the most reasonable and "real." Because of promeism, people often find it quite natural to gravitate to like individuals and once the individuals come together, an "us" mentality invariably develops. Anytime you have an "us" that exists within a larger society, there will also be a "them" or various "thems" that exist as well. Because oftentimes there are real and formitable destinctions between the commonalities and priorities of the "us's" and the "thems", the posibility for friction, stereotyping, and even disdain will exist.

In many ways racism is a larger scale projection of the individual ego that naturally regards the "self", which in the case of the larger scale we are discussing is equivalent to the group to which one identifies, as paramount and of having first priority. True racial or any form of group equality will not be able to be realized until we as individuals become convinced and perhaps even conditioned to believe that all individuals are not only deserving of equal rights as every other individual, but also that every not me person is just as important and just as big a priority as I am. That would involve eliminating the human ego and man's pride entirely, so I doubt that will ever happen.

We need to form an anti-hate hate group I think the day will come when people who believe in the supernatural will be publicly ridiculed and discriminated against. Who in their right mind would hire a police officer, accountant, lawyer, etc who's so obviously not a rational person and willingly chooses to believe in myths as reality?

We can eradicate racism from society by elimination of discrimination. Since this requires everyone to have been on the receiving end of discrimination to understand why we shouldn't discriminate and how to not discriminate, I would say the only way is through education and enforcements...

This would be a pretty difficult thing to achieve, however, due to what seems to be human nature to belong to a group and name outcasts..

« Last Edit: July 04, 2012, 12:10:34 AM by jeremy0 »

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"If you find yourself reaching for the light, first realize that it has already touched your finger.""If I were your god, I would have no reason for judgement, and you have all told endless lies about me. Wait - you do already. I am not amused by your ignorance, thoughtlessness, and shallow mind."

We can eradicate racism from society by elimination of discrimination. Since this requires everyone to have been on the receiving end of discrimination to understand why we shouldn't discriminate and how to not discriminate, I would say the only way is through education and enforcements...

This would be a pretty difficult thing to achieve, however, due to what seems to be human nature to belong to a group and name outcasts..

Are you sure this wouldn't just address the proximal reason, not the ultimate reason? It's like violence. We already have strong laws against it (at least in most countries), and still you have scores of people behaving violently all the time. I'm not saying your way isn't the way to go, but it really won't remove racism, just make it less visible.

I think marginalizing groups is the way to approach it. Even if it means marginalizing the whites, as they are the only race that does not seem to be discriminated against, in general. If the U.S., for example, becomes majority non-white, maybe then the whites will feel something they have never felt before - being a minority.

I was thinking more in terms of inventing medicine to combat racism I think racism is somewhat hardwired to our brains. So it's not something we can eradicate through education but rather through medication.

How about inventing an anti-racist drug and releasing it into the air & water?

I don't think we can rid the world of racism. We can teach people to ignore racial differences, but we will have to continue teaching each generation forever. Babies treat people of other races differently. Racist is the default setting.

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"Do you see a problem with insisting that the normal ways in which you determine fact from fiction is something you have to turn off in order to maintain the belief in God?" - JeffPT

I think marginalizing groups is the way to approach it. Even if it means marginalizing the whites, as they are the only race that does not seem to be discriminated against, in general. If the U.S., for example, becomes majority non-white, maybe then the whites will feel something they have never felt before - being a minority.

Whites are predicted to be a minority in a while (don't remember exact statistics..)

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"If you find yourself reaching for the light, first realize that it has already touched your finger.""If I were your god, I would have no reason for judgement, and you have all told endless lies about me. Wait - you do already. I am not amused by your ignorance, thoughtlessness, and shallow mind."

I was thinking more in terms of inventing medicine to combat racism I think racism is somewhat hardwired to our brains. So it's not something we can eradicate through education but rather through medication.

How about inventing an anti-racist drug and releasing it into the air & water?

Like that movie 'Equilibrium' - where everyone has to take drugs so they no longer have any emotions? It was like nazi-drug addiction - nobody could 'feel anything', so there was no crime...

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"If you find yourself reaching for the light, first realize that it has already touched your finger.""If I were your god, I would have no reason for judgement, and you have all told endless lies about me. Wait - you do already. I am not amused by your ignorance, thoughtlessness, and shallow mind."

As long as there are very wealthy people in the world...there will be racism

Not really. As long as there are geographiclly distinct groups that be easily identified through genetic feature such as skin color or nose shape, there will be racisim. Which, IMHO, means racism should be a completely alien concept in about three centuries.

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An Omnipowerful God needed to sacrifice himself to himself (but only for a long weekend) in order to avert his own wrath against his own creations who he made in a manner knowing that they weren't going to live up to his standards.

As long as there are very wealthy people in the world...there will be racism

Not really. As long as there are geographiclly distinct groups that be easily identified through genetic feature such as skin color or nose shape, there will be racisim. Which, IMHO, means racism should be a completely alien concept in about three centuries.

What colour do you think we will all be in three centuries?

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There's no right there's no wrong,there's just popular opinion (Brad Pitt as Jeffery Goines in 12 monkeys)

As long as there are very wealthy people in the world...there will be racism

Not really. As long as there are geographiclly distinct groups that be easily identified through genetic feature such as skin color or nose shape, there will be racisim. Which, IMHO, means racism should be a completely alien concept in about three centuries.

What colour do you think we will all be in three centuries?

If we do survive, cafe a'laut roughly.

Logged

An Omnipowerful God needed to sacrifice himself to himself (but only for a long weekend) in order to avert his own wrath against his own creations who he made in a manner knowing that they weren't going to live up to his standards.

As long as there are very wealthy people in the world...there will be racism

Not really. As long as there are geographiclly distinct groups that be easily identified through genetic feature such as skin color or nose shape, there will be racisim. Which, IMHO, means racism should be a completely alien concept in about three centuries.

What colour do you think we will all be in three centuries?

If we do survive, cafe a'laut roughly.

I love it when we can say some really serious things with a smirk and a grin..

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"If you find yourself reaching for the light, first realize that it has already touched your finger.""If I were your god, I would have no reason for judgement, and you have all told endless lies about me. Wait - you do already. I am not amused by your ignorance, thoughtlessness, and shallow mind."

I was thinking more in terms of inventing medicine to combat racism I think racism is somewhat hardwired to our brains. So it's not something we can eradicate through education but rather through medication.

How about inventing an anti-racist drug and releasing it into the air & water?

Like that movie 'Equilibrium' - where everyone has to take drugs so they no longer have any emotions? It was like nazi-drug addiction - nobody could 'feel anything', so there was no crime...

Hmm, I was thinking more about the movie - They Live, where the aliens hypnotise the human population. But Equilibrium style works too.

As long as there a diverse groups with charactoristics, norms, and priorities that differentiate them from other groups that share a reality with one another, something akin to racism will exist. As living creatures that have a survival instinct virtually harded wired into our being, and a 'bestial' nature to go along with our "higher intelligence, we will continue to provide an ideal breeding ground for the "isms" and discrimination that they so often give rise to. The only solution I see is us finding a way to evolve beyond our own humanity.

I don't think we can rid the world of racism. We can teach people to ignore racial differences, but we will have to continue teaching each generation forever. Babies treat people of other races differently. Racist is the default setting.

I don't agree. Babies who grow up in multiracial environments with relatives of different "races" do not treat people differently. Babies who are adopted by people of a different race do not automatically reject their parents. (Some babies are afraid of albinos, men with beards or clowns because they don't look right. Babies raised by albinos, men with beards or clowns won't have this fear.) They have to be taught who is or is not acceptable, because racism is a cultural phenomenon, not an inborn characteristic.